Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 31035
Hints and tips by Shabbo
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ****
Good morning, fellow puzzlers.
A lovely challenging puzzle which I found to be tricky in parts. However, if you follow the setter’s instructions carefully, every clue does exactly what it says on the tin. Several reversals and letter selections/deletions, but all presented within the smoothest of surface reads. A setter at the very top of his game.
In the blog below, the definition element of each clue has been underlined, anagrams are CAPITALISED and the crossword technique “indicator words” are in brackets. The answers are concealed under the “Click Here” buttons. Please leave a comment telling us how you got on and what you thought of the puzzle.
Many thanks to our setter and to the DT Crossword Team.
Across
1a Writer of book with purpose entertaining everyone (9)
BALLPOINT: abbreviation for Book + synonym of purpose outside (entertaining) synonym of everyone. The definition is a writing implement rather than an author.
6a Miss seeing runner compete essentially (4)
SKIP: synonym of runner (think winter sports) + the middle letter (essentially) of comPete.
10a Name of couple who disagreed about eating fish (5)
SPRAT: double definition.
11a Movie ad, e.g. about Minecraft maybe (5,4)
VIDEO GAME: anagram (about) of MOVIE AD EG.
12a Incorrect with earlier advanced forecast for corporation (7)
ABDOMEN: take a three-letter synonym of incorrect and move the abbreviation for Advanced to the front (earlier advanced). Then add a synonym of forecast to reveal the definition – think paunch, not business.
13a Sign right next to unknown public building (7)
LIBRARY: a sign of the zodiac + abbreviation for Right + one of X,Y or Z (unknowns or variables in algebra).
14a Opponent is target for striking female (8)
OBJECTOR: synonym of target + (f)OR (striking female).
16a Committee that possesses enough power to be effective (5)
TEETH: hidden word (possesses). Our solution is lurking within words 1 & 2 of the clue.
19a Victory margin at Ascot perhaps before (5)
AHEAD: what the victory margin might be in a close horse race.
21a Explosion of temper initially aboard broken-down tour bus (8)
OUTBURST: insert the initial letter of Temper inside (aboard) an anagram (broken down) of TOUR BUS.
24a Country smell, not half like Italian street? (7)
BOLIVIA: smell associated with poor personal hygiene + LIke (not half) + road or street in Italian.
25a Change the name for gas (7)
METHANE: anagram (change) of THE NAME.
27a Designers from Spain sneering, it’s out of place (9)
ENGINEERS: anagram (it’s out of place) of SNEERING + E (country code for Spain or España).
28a Rejected oddly empty hotel Democrat publicised (5)
HYPED: take the odd letters of EmPtY and the abbreviation for Hotel, join them together and turn the whole thing round (rejected) and then add the abbreviation for Democrat. Tricky.
29a Garden accessory and tools picked up (4)
HOSE: homophone (picked up or heard) of long-handled tools used in the garden.
30a Flipping embarrassed, a French worker admits secret (9)
UNDERHAND: the colour one’s face might go when embarrassed reversed (flipping) inside (admits) UN (a in French) + synonym of worker.
Down
1d Cry over lover about to leave dance (5,4)
BOSSA NOVA: three-letter synonym of cry backwards (over – we are now into the Down clues) + a former Venetian ladies’ man without his first two letters (about or CA to leave).
2d Induced judge to imprison rogue after spilling guts (5)
LURED: facetious term for a judge outside (to imprison) RoguE (after spilling guts).
3d Old cat kept by retiring international US banker (7)
POTOMAC: abbreviation for Old + male cat inside (kept by) a three-letter term which might describe an international player reversed (retiring). The US banker is a river – something that has banks.
4d Architect of trendy IOW resort bar last November (8)
INVENTOR: synonym of trendy + a resort on the Isle of Wight without the second N (bar November).
5d Slightly drunk daughters interrupting Thai lady, heartless both (6)
TIDDLY: abbreviation for daughter twice (plural) inside (interrupting) ThaI LadY (both being heartless).
7d Creature emerging from lake a boar disturbed (5,4)
KOALA BEAR: anagram (disturbed) of LAKE A BOAR. In a probably vain attempt to minimise comments, we all know that it’s actually a marsupial, but the early settlers named it thus at the time and the name has stuck, whether we like it or not.
8d Devoutness that is ultimately clear-cut in prebendary’s case (5)
PIETY: abbreviation for that is (Id Est) + the final letter (ultimately) of clear-cuT inside (in) the first and last letters (case) of PrebendarY.
9d Dessert prepared to welcome returning sibling (6)
SORBET: synonym of prepared outside (to welcome) abbreviation for brother backwards (returning).
15d Patient character records broadcast as Mr Average (3,6)
JOE BLOGGS: homophone (broadcast) of both a patient person from the New Testament and of records (a verb).
17d Penning two articles, odd he somehow is impetuous (9)
HOTHEADED: definite and indefinite articles inside (penning) anagram (somehow) of ODD HE.
18d Suspected renegades I’m rushing round to arrest (8)
SURMISED: hidden word backwards (round to arrest). Our answer is lurking backwards within words 2-4 of the clue.
20d Sport mostly needing energy that’s excellent (6)
DIVINE: an aquatic sport without the final letter (mostly) + abbreviation for Energy.
22d Shopkeeper’s more tough (7)
BUTCHER: double definition.
23d Good meal must include a posh cake (6)
GATEAU: abbreviation for Good + afternoon meal outside (must include) A + single letter signifying posh, or Upper class.
24d Insect husband caught climbing tree (5)
BEECH: three-letter insect + abbreviations for Husband and Caught reversed (climbing).
26d Type of male drinkers once outside large pub (5)
ALPHA: abbreviation for an organisation which helps problem drinkers (drinkers once) outside abbreviations for Large and Public House.
Quickie Pun: DUMB + PERT + RUCK = DUMPER TRUCK
I was held up in the Southwest by the country, the tree, Spanish designers and 15d because I divided the answer 2/7 and not 3/6. I have question marks against a couple and will need the hints for explanations. I had the correct corporation at 12a but could not get the wrong word out of my mind until checkers arrived. To my shame, after having spent a career with them, I missed the lurker at 16a.
All in all, a perfect puzzle for a Thursday with my COTD being the architect at 4d.
Thank you, setter for a great puzzle. Thank you, Shabbo for the hints.
A little tricky in the NW but otherwise a reasonably straightforward canter. What an absolutely superb puzzle, immensely satisfying with plenty of light-dawning moments.
Ticks everywhere, so will limit to 1d, 2d, 4d & 15d (COTD).
Many thanks (surely) to Silvanus and to Shabbo
A tricky little number, inwhich I navigated my way stradily rou nd dromthe NE in a clockwise direction unril I ground to a halt in the NW. Ax This corner had some super clues. For my money, the best three were the Lego clues with a geographical connection at 3d, 4d and24a. Thanks to the compiler ffor a nice challengeand to Shabbo for the hints
I see that Beam is on Toughie duty and the smoothness of the clues in this back pager suggests that our Ynys Mon correspondent has a Dream Team Thursday today. A very appropriate challenge for a Thursday – ***/*****
Candidates for favourite – 24a, 29a, 2d, 3d, and 24d – and the winner is 3d.
Thanks to Silvanus, for it must be here, and thanks to Shabbo.
Another excellent puzzle from Sade that was a joy to solve. I started off with the 1a/1d comby and it went swimmingly from there.
I’ve never heard of a prebendary which would have pleased Brian and 15d was a blast from the past. Such a great term.
The rekrul in 18d and the part r_e_k_r_u_l in 28a are Silvanus giveaways.
My podium is 14a (an excellent clue), 30a (top notch construction) and 3d.
MT to the afore..etc and Shabbs.
3*/5*
Another grid that is user-friendly, this one has only five clues where the first letter is not an intersection.
Plenty of humour and some fine surface readings, I particularly admired the macho shopkeeper at 22d, the bug-chasing married man up a tree in 24d and the alfresco boozers at 26d.
Best of all though was the 18th century Italian playboy strutting his stuff in 1d.
Great fun, my thanks to our setter and
Shabbo.
An excellent puzzle again, with lots of clever misdirection. The east fell for me rather more rapidly than the west. My favourites were the patient character at 15d followed by the country at 24a and the malcontents at 10a. Thanks very much to the setter and to Shabbo.
I found this one rather tricky, nothing seemed to go in without a struggle.
Seems to me that 28a can be read to give the answer ‘ypehd’ rather that the real one, but that’s maybe the way my brain works.
Last one in was 12a which took ages, but rather a clever clue when you’d finally got it.
My two of the day are 15d and the aforementioned 12a. Many thanks to our setter today, a great challenge for a Thursday.
Hi TC
Re 28a, I agree that h could come before or after ype.
Silvy went with ‘oddly empty hotel’ rejected as opposed to ‘oddly empty’ rejected followed by hotel.
Good Morning. This took several reads before any headway was made. Like Steve C, noted in the opening comment, the NE was the first corner to fall , followed by the SE, SW, with NW teased out. 1a is my COTD. Thane for the review and to the setter
I ticked 4d as a potential favourite very early on and it was not overtaken in the run-in. Pleasingly tricky in places, this was entertainment of the highest order.
Thanks to, presumably, Silvanus for a terrific challenge, and to Shabbo.
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms. Today’s crossword was spread across two pages with only one glue appearing on the second page. Won’t somebody think of all those trees?
This is clearly a conspiracy between paper mills and the so-called Daily Telegraph and the so-called crossword section. Never, in the history of mankind, has there been a greater scandal. This makes the Profumo Affair seem like a swim in a pool at Cliveden.
In order to protect our trees from any future infraction, I intend to spend the rest of my life living in a different tree every day, thus preventing them from being used in this devil-may-care fashion.
Copied to Mr Lancaster, Sir Keir Starmer, His Holiness The Pope, Mrs Melania Trump, Jose Mourinho, and Taylor Swift.
Oh… actually I spotted this in time and shrank the contents so I only used one page. So please ignore the above.
Thanks to the setter and Shabba-dabba-doo
The voice of reason, as ever, Terence.
I do feel though that poor Melania has more than enough to deal with at the moment. Don’t you?
When all the world is grey and grim fortunately we can always rely on Terence to rescue us from the slough (small s) of despond. There are days when I feel that Big Dave should have two divisions, Premier for the walk in the park solvers, and First/Second for the rest of us.
A top-class and very entertaining puzzle – many thanks to our setter and Shabbo.
It would be easier to list the clues which I didn’t tick but of those I did tick I’ll just mention 12a,14a, 1d, 15d and 26d.
A tricky little number, especially the north west which I had a real battle with. Some wonderful clues which I enjoyed cracking and a few I just couldn’t parse, thanks to Shabbo I can now see the light eg 1d and 12a.
1a was my favourite.
Many thanks to the setter and to Shabbo for the hints.
An entertaining puzzle where the parsing had to be teased out. Ticks everywhere on the page so I’ll have to narrow my top picks down to 24a, 16a, 1d, 29a and 15d.
Thanks to Shabbo and the setter.
Too difficult for me but great pleasure in solving 80% of the clues eventually
A very pleasing Thursday puzzle. Great clues, a decent challenge and an enjoyable tussle. Lots of ticks and I’ll choose, quite arbitrarily, 14a as my favourite. 3.5*/4.5*.
*Surely 29a was inspired by the Two Ronnies?
I found this tricky and needed Shabbo’s explanations for one or two. 15d took a long time to remember Mr Bloggs, for me Mr Average is ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’ from a long ago legal judgement though why the ‘bus to Clapham’ was never explained
Allin all some lovely clues. Thanks to the setter and Shabbo
Perfectly pitched puzzle for a Thursday. Lovely surfaces that conjured up some amusing images. Thanks to the setter and of course to Shabbo for the review/hints – especially the attempt to minimise comments on 7d!
This being an off week for RayT, I was expecting to have a tougher time as I usually do on his off weeks. However, I found this puzzle relatively easy to solve. A bit of head scratching and some hmm! moments, but overall good.
2.5*/3.5*
Favourites 10a, 19a, 25a, 7d, 15d & 26d — with winner 26d
Smiles from 10a, 19a & 25a
Off to tackle the Beam toughie now.
Thanks to Silvanus & Shabbo
A game of two halves for me. The first half was three quarters of the grid and the second half was the NW where I really struggled and needed the hints for 1a/1d and 10a.
My COTD was the 16a lurker, which needed the checkers before I found it.
It probably is Silvanus as I have a habit of struggling more with his puzzles.
Still very enjoyable so thanks to Silvanus (presumably) and Shabbo for the hints.
Very challenging. Very enjoyable. 4d completely threw me as I hadn’t the foggiest what IOW was. It wouldn’t have mattered – I’d never heard of the resort. 11a was nice for the misdrirection: the youngest member of the family used to be a Minecraft fan, so I knew what it was, but there was also a film version not so long ago, so that was where my thoughts went first. 1a is my COTD for that penny drop feeling. Thanks to Shabbo for the hints and the setter for the setting
Only managed about half this in bed this morning and the rest looked very tricky. However, settled down about half an hour ago and it all just sort of wrote itself in and I wondered what the difficulty had been. Finding the J certainly helped. Wordled by the skin of my teeth today. Anyway thanks to the setter and Shabbo.
A super puzzle. All straightforward except for my go-slow in the NW, like a few others. Thanks to shabbo and to our setter.
Phew that was a struggle and only completed with much umparsed bunging in e.g. 28a and 15d. Can’t say I enjoyed the challenge. Thank you Silvanus and Shabbo.
Excellent puzzle!
Took me an eternity to work out 1d – I keep resolving to learn dances, but never get round to it…!
Quick shower,cup of tea and the puzzle. Had a Macmillan fund raiser to host this morning and a cake to bake. This puzzle was so engaging and I literally had to tear myself away. Only half the clues read and one could see it was intriguing . Back to it by 2 p.m. and hard enough to be rewarding. Favourite 10a. and what a lurker in 16 a. Nearly missed it. Best down clue for me was 15 d. Did not know the slang for a judge in 2 d and that was the only bung in. Thank you setter , you nearly ruined my morning but made my day. Many thanks Shabbo.
The Judge is called My Lord which is usually corrupted to Me Lud or M’Lud. I have never heard of just Lud as a judge – but what do I know!
Setter here, many thanks to Shabbo and to all those solving and commenting.
See you all again soon.
Thank you Sylvanus for a real brain teaser. Very satisfying to finish it.
Just got back from yet another ‘routine’ hospital appointment – in Llandudno this time so at least it was a change of scenery from that in Bangor!
Loved this production from Mr Smooth and had masses of ticks & smiles noted on my paper. Rosettes were handed out to 1,12&14a plus 1,3&15d with smiles for 10a plus 5&22d. OK – I know I’ve handed out too many rosettes but what the heck, the puzzle was worth it!
Many thanks to Silvanus for the enjoyment and to Shabbo for the review.
Not sure why but my earlier comment appears to have vanished into the ether so I’ll try again.
Solved this hugely enjoyable & unmistakably Smooth production in the wee small hours. Stick a ✅ next to pretty well all of ‘em but if forced to pick a fav it’d be 26d. A swift grid fill but feared for the 3rd day running one of the whys was going to elude me with the 1st 3 letters of 12a until twigging the ‘with earlier advanced’ wordplay. Shame there’s so few comments.
Thanks to Silvanus & to Shabbo.
Ps Half expected someone would post the iconic Two Ronnies sketch for 29a so I’ll do so.
Chuffed to solve a 4 star difficulty, couldnt parse 3 or 4, and took some moments to decipher Shabbo’s hints.
Wouldn’t have inventor as architect synonym. Thanks to setter.
Enjoyed this, although it definitely put up a fight. I had at least half a dozen answers where I needed the hints to explain the whys and wherefores. Almost bunged in Romania in 24a but saved by the checkers. Had to solve in two halves as we needed to get out earlier to get our flu shots while we still can. Still waiting to see if we can get Covid shots. He who knows best has deemed that only the 65+ can get them, but even that has yet to be approved by his new committee of mostly, yes anti-vax people. So we are not holding our breath. Thanks to Silvanus for the challenge and to Shabbo for the explanations.
I solved this over breakfast and have been out all day since then playing cricket – a very satisfying win to finish the season.
However, I couldn’t not comment on this puzzle, which I would venture to suggest is one of the finest to grace the back pages of The Telegraph. My rating is 3*/5* and any one of the 32 clues would not be out of place as a favourite.
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Shabbo.
High praise indeed. I loved it as well.
Take a bow, Silvanus.
Two puzzles today full of of excellence and humour. They’re spoiling us at Telegraph Towers. Only managed to parse 2d as the judge popped up in a toughie a short while ago. Hard to pick a favourite but I’ll go with 10a as it made me smile the most. Thanks to Silvanus and Shabbo.
Found this one hard to get into , but once I got a foothold in the south things began to slot in. I ground to a halt in the NW, and have just looked at the hint for 3d – a banker I hadn’t heard of , which left me with my last one in 12a which I got from the letters but was flummoxed at the parsing until I read the hint. I always forget corporation meaning the body stuff! I guess it’s no surprise it’s a Silvanus. Always a smart solve – thanks for the challenge. Thanks also to Shabbo.
4*/4* …
liked 24A “Country smell, not half like Italian street ? (7)”
can’t say I was familiar with that Italian for street – strada surely the more well known.
Struck me that the clue casts aspersions , unfairly I am sure, on the aroma of Italian streets.
Good to see you “on the day” Robin (well next day actually as it is me behind things)
Doing the Appian Way…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appian_Way?wprov=sfla1
Thanks for the Wikipedia article …
found this puzzle rather tricky – had it not been for the hints my original comment would have been a deal later.
Way beyond my abilities today. Ground to a halt after solving all of two clues.
Kudos to the geniuses that completed this.
Thanks to all.
I tackled this very late in the day and now in bed so I’m last man standing / or last woman lying down. Jolly tricky but very clever and I did need a couple of hints from Shabbo. May thanks to him and to Sylvanus. Time for slumber.
I thoroughly enjoyed this very elegant puzzle. It was a most rewarding challenge. ***/****
Not suprisingly, I am at a loss to choose a favourite clue as any one could grace the top of the podium. Instead, here is a selection of especial likes:
1a, 10a, 12a, 13a, 14a, 24a, 1d, 15d, 17d and 24d. Let’s not forget 26d which really made me chuckle.
Many appreciative thanks to Sylvanus for an excellent crossword.
Many appreciative thanks to Shabbo for the Hints and Tips which I didn’t need but enjoyed reading.
Not sure about 15d. There seems to be an extra e in Job and he was an Old Testament character wasn’t he or am I missing something. Otherwise good puzzle.
Hi Andrew
Thank you for commenting.
“Broadcast” in 15d tells us that this is a homophone clue. If you repeat the solution often enough, it turns into Job logs – “patient character records”.
You are correct, Job is an Old Testament figure and the Book of Job is in the Old Testament. My apologies. In my (somewhat flimsy) defence the “patience of Job” is referred to in James 5:10-11 in the New Testament.
I hope this helps.
Hint for 15D threw me. The patient guy referred to is definitely OT, not NT.